Science Of Drink

Cuban classic cocktails - El Presedente was created in Club El Chico in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village (Cuba). My favorite version of this cocktail (without lime juice and bitters) was found on Esquire Drink Database (by D. Wondrich).

El Presidente

45 ml white rum
15 ml orange curacao
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash grenadine
Stir with cracked ice. Strain in cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Cocktail El Presidente has amazing orange color if it right prepared. I use rum Havana Club Anejo Blanco for excellent results and homemade grenadine for right taste and color.

This elegant cocktail was invented in lobby-bar Savoy Hotel (not Claridge as you may reflect!). Claridge Cocktail has very interesting and real taste. I think it is ideal on after work evening or romantic night.

Claridge

30 ml gin
30 ml dry vermouth
15 ml Cointreau
15 ml apricot brandy
Shake. Cocktail glass.

Admirable! Claridge Cocktail has unique rich sweet taste. Actually the taste of Claridge Cocktail not depend on its coldness - this cocktail has very good taste at room temperature.

Pegu Club Cocktail is very interesting drink. It was born in Pegu Club, Rangoon, Burma about 1927. I think it was very interesting place and time. Great time for great classical cocktails and very unusual place - Burma…

I payed attention for Pegu Club Cocktail on my blog. But I think that this classical cocktail is worthy of most detailed investigation. I try some version of this cocktail from competent sources for best understanding of Pegu Club Cocktail.

First recipe was found on Esquire Drink Database:

Pegu Club #1

60 ml gin
20 ml orange curacao
20 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Shake with a lot of cracked ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

We have sour and bitter-taste cocktail in result. I think that it is great aperetive but it is not my choice.

Two next recipe was found on CocktailDB:

Pegu Club #2

60 ml gin
30 ml ml orange curacao
5 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

This cocktail is awful. It has oily-sweet and very bitter taste. As for me it is disappointing thing. But this cocktail let me to understand one key problem of Pegu Club Cocktail. One of key thing of Pegu is airing of a drink. Airing of coctail during it shaking give us smooth and pleasant drink.

Next recipe of Pegu Cocktail was found on CocktailDB too. The composition of this version of Pegu Club Cocktail seems very interesting:

Pegu Club #3

50 ml gin
15 ml orange curacao
8 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Shake (Hard! Bruise it!) with a lot of cracked (or crushed) ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

This cocktail has bright, very aromatic and smooth bitter taste. Actually this Pegu Club Cocktail is great cocktail. For best result you must shake your cocktail very, very hard. I use crushed ice and shake hard my cocktail about 30 - 45 sec. In this condition the airing of drink is optimal and we obtain great cocktail.

I try version of Pegu Cocktail by Dale DeGroff too.

Pegu Club by Dale DeGroff

60 ml gin
20 ml orange curacao
2 lime wedge
2 dash Angostura bitters
Muddle lime with liqueur and bitters, then add gin, ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

It is very interesting and refreshing cocktail. This version of Pegu Club Cocktail has light bitter taste and is good balanced. The taste of this cocktail is more closest to #3 version but has some interesting notes of lime essential oils from peel. Actually it is very interesting drink.

I posted the Martinez Cocktail on my blog before, but I decided to return to this cocktail for detailed investigation. The Martinez Cocktail is one of my favorite classic cocktail.

The Martinez Cocktail is very old cocktail. Some peoples think that Martinez is the precursor of most famous cocktail of the world - The Martini cocktail. The author of Martinez Cocktail is legendary Jerry Thomas.

Some imbabers-bloggers give attention to this cocktail too. You can find more interesting information about Martinez on one of my favorite blog Oh, Gosh! (by Jay Hapburn) and, of course, on Spirits And Cocktails (by Jamie Boudreau).

First I discovered old-style version of Martinez Cocktail, which is more closest to original recipe by Jerry Thomas.

Martinez (Old Style)

60 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml gin (Old Tom gin is preferable)
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
1 dash bitters
Stir. Strain in cocktail glass. Garnish with a quarter of lemon wheel.

It is amazing cocktail with right and elegant taste. It is so week as for my taste, but rich complex taste of this version is very good for me.

Next step of my investigation is recipe of Martinez from CocktailDB. In this Martinez we can to try orange curacao as substitute of maraschino liqueur and dry vermouth instead sweet.

Martinez (Dry Style)

35 ml gin
30 ml dry vermouth
7 ml orange curacao (or maraschino liqueur)
1 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

This Martinez is so closest to Martini Cocktail. It has so dry, aromatic taste (I use MB Orange Curacao 30%). This cocktail is very good aperetive, but this version is not my choice.

This version of Martinez with maraschino liqueur has beautiful light sweet aromatic taste with floral undertones. This taste is more preferable for my understanding of Martinez Cocktail.

And of course I try modern version of Martinez Cocktail by Jamie Boudreau. It is one of my favorite cocktail.

Martinez (Modern style)

45 ml gin
45 ml sweet vermouth
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

Magnificent cocktail! It is smooth and very aromatic cocktail. Sometimes I use Angostura aromatic bitters instead orange bitters, this work well in my opinion.

In conclusion I try my own version of this classic cocktail. I like to use sweet citrus vermouth by Cinzano in my Martinez.

My Martinez

35 ml gin
35 ml sweet citrus vermouth (I prefer Cinzano Limetto)
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash Angostura bitter
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

It is beautiful cocktail with smooth aromatic citrus taste.